Except when he took the terms of Liliana’s contract for himself and died that is.

Can law magic be used by common people or only those in a position of authority are able to cast it?

Excellent question. I think you have to be trained in it, and obviously a legal wielder of it depending on the law magic. No citizen's arrest-style law magic.

Enchantments are more of a game mechanic than any solid thing you can point to in the actual story. The way magic is presented in-universe is much more abstract and varies widely from one character to another.

What are some examples of enchantments and/or enchantment removal being used in a story?

Gosh, that’s not easy because enchantments aren’t typically easy to differentiate in story from other spells.

But Aang IS over a hundred years old. He didn’t time travel to the future, he was just preserved in ice for a century but he was alive the whole time.

Sarkhan Vol is physically a human in his late 40s. He hasn't lived any longer or shorter than that. The time travel didn't allow him to live any longer or shorter than that. There is nothing 'technically' about this. He briefly appeared in the past, and on a technicality appeared at the exact same age he used to be back in the present. Saying he's over a 1000 is just as silly as saying Aang from Avatar was 100.

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The reason Nicol Bolas hates physical fighting is that once you commit to a fight to the death, you have to be in it to win it, there’s no backing out if things turn sour. He prefers schemes where he can work behind the scenes and adjust his plans to account for unexpected circumstances. In short, Nicol Bolas never puts himself in harm’s way unless he absolutely has to.

Was there ever any reason given why Bolas found physical combat distasteful, like he claimed in the Mizzet fight? He's a big beefy 7/7 flier and before the Mending he sure loved physically beating the crap out of people. He certainly liked punching Leshrac, Teferi and Ugin into pulp. Or was he just putting on an act until Niv let his guard down or something?

When before the Mending did Bolas physically fight someone rather than mystically? Genuine question - there were some duels were physical combat was involved, but the ones I remember were primarily magical. He had minions to rough people up for him.

Garruk just kind of comes from Generic Fantasy Land.

From what we know about Garruk's homeplane, it's a medieval/feudal wartorn world, right?

Vaguely. Also there are baloths

Ajani seems like such an old man. I can’t believe he only sparked four years ago!

Hello Jay! I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of a timeline or indication of how long magic story has been chronologically? I know its been about 60 years since the Mending, and the most recent story happened over a few months. However, I'm struggling to find out how long ago Return to Ravnica was. Thank you!

War of the Spark occurs around the month of Cizarm in 10,076 ZC.

Return to Ravnica occurs in 10,074 ZC. There’s roughly a year between Jace becoming the Living Guildpact and Battle for Zendikar and another year between BFZ and War of the Spark. ROUGHLY.

I don’t know of any other detailed modern timelines (I haven’t published mine), but I can tell you that the entirety of the post-Mending story takes place over the last four or so years. Shards of Alara was about four years ago.

I just thought the weight gain was from all that wine she drinks.

Wait is Cersei pregnant in the books as well? Did I miss something? Was the baby conceived during the Sept sex? Wouldn't have enough time passed for people to notice by her ADWD chapter?

“To break her fast the queen sent to the kitchens for two boiled eggs, a loaf of bread, and a pot of honey. But when she cracked the first egg and found a bloody half-formed chick inside, her stomach roiled. 

It’s not very subtle is it? Increased appetite, weight gain, and then SYMBOLISM!

I think people will notice, at the right dramatic moment. 

The Night’s Watch has to be apolitical. If the Lord Commander is appointed by the king he becomes indebted to him.

Why doesn’t the King appoint the Commander of the Night’s Watch?

Because for eight thousand years, they’ve elcted their own leaders. Also, they’re extremely far away. 

Bolas’s MO is to figure out what is that motivates people and promise to help them attain it if they do just one little task for him first. Liliana was terrified of death, Vraska wanted to be more than just a killing machine, Tezzeret is a garbage asshole, etc. A pawn doesn’t have to know your whole evil scheme to be useful, they just have to play their part. After the fall of the Consulate, Dovin Baan is going to be looking for for a government he can make sure runs smoothly and efficiently. I’m sure getting to apply his skills to turning the Azorius into a well oiled machine is a dream come true for him, which makes him an easy mark for Bolas.

I don't understand why Dovin Baan would serve Bolas. He appears as a clever man who tries to prevent any harm. Allying with a murderous, scheming dragon seems unlikely to me.

Why would you assume Dovin knows everything you know?

I just can’t imagine that George would spend so much time developing Theon if his plan was just to use him as a camera for Stannis’s camp and then discard him.

Hi, I discovered your essays a while ago, and... Wow, thanks, a great read while waiting for TWOW. You seem to think that Theon will survive the battle in the ice and even help to overthrow Erik Ironmaker with Asha. I love this character, and I would really like to see how and if he will survive and rebuild himself after all he did and suffered, but I don´t see how he could be of use... Except as a great POV to witness what happens in the Iron Isles. Do you see anything bigger coming for him?

Theon could be potentially be very useful as a Latecomer option to overthrow the kingsmoot. If so, though, Asha and the Reader would probably be the actual mobilizers.

How are the Sun empire Mary Sues? Their emperor is a power mad conqueror and the city of Orazca was lost in the first place because they abused the power of the Immortal Sun.

I'm rather annoyed at how the Legion of Dusk is portrayed. Yes, they're based on conquistadores, but by Creative admission they are designed as to have nowhere near the same power and capacity for harm... yet they're treated as the default "bad guys". Obviously they're not going to make them sympathetic, but they can't do anything really evil, so they're just annoying while actual evil factions like the Pirates and Sun Empire are treated as Mary Sue self-inserts.

You’ve lost me, here. If anything the Dusk Legion is more powerful and harmful than real-life Conquistadors ever were. The difference is that the Sun Empire is a society that can fight back on equal terms.

How are the Pirates and Sun Empire ‘evil’? They’re definitely not great, but the Dusk Legion under the current regime is the only one that could accurately be described as evil overall.

How are entire civilizations Mary Sue self-inserts? Trope terms like this can be useful shorthand, but Mary Sue is a term so abused and misused that it’s basically useless. What are you actually trying to get at here? 

Is this Bolas posting? How dare you say nice things about Ugin? I am the Firstborn!

Jesus, you are pathetic. I guess you cannot actually take being wrong about Ugin not being Azor's friend. I guess you should have actually read the story 'Sabotage' before your smartass incorrect reply. For someone who acts like they know the lore, you sure don't. Blocking me because you cannot take being wrong? What a fragile ego.

lol

Sfdebris did a great video on the concept of honor using Worf and the Klingons from Star Trek as his example.

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/yt_worfandklingonhonor.php

Hello, In Westeros how does honor work exactly? I apologize if this sounds like a silly question but hear me out. I define honor as doing the moral/right thing no matter the inconvenience or difficulty, (admittedly I can fall short of that ideal), but looking over the Vale it seems like it's more about the family name and "respectability". I mean look at the horror at some landed knight marrying Alayne Stone. Alayne Stone is way better than Harrold Hardying. Just like Sansa is better. Thanks.

Good question!

I mean, there’s a really wide literature in history, anthropology, literature, philosophy, etc. on the topic of “honor” and the different ways that different cultures and thinkers have defined and argued about it the term. So I can’t really distill all of that down to a single post.

However, I think I can shed some light on this specific topic. Honor has both an interior/individual side and an external/social side; on the latter, it’s about how well the broader community judges you have upheld the code of honor that society has established, it’s about what your reputation is. 

To use a different example: Ned Stark is honorable in two senses of the term. The first has to do with how he acts, the care he takes to behave in accordance with a particular code of ethics. The second has to do with his reputation, that Ned is widely understood to be a “man of honor” by others of his class. 

Aww shit, Lord Windgrace is the Immortal Iron Fist?!

From official WotC website, not leaked! (Source) 

Check out this gorgeous art of the planeswalker commanders from Commander 2018! 

I took the scorpion brooch to be subtle reference to the red scorpions that killed Lyonel Tyrell.

Then it was time for gifts. It was traditional in the Reach to give presents to bride and groom on the morning of their wedding; on the morrow they would receive more presents as a couple, but today’s tokens were for their separate persons.

From Jalabhar Xho, Joffrey received a great bow of golden wood and quiver of long arrows fletched with green and scarlet feathers; from Lady Tanda a pair of supple riding boots; from Ser Kevan a magnificent red leather jousting saddle; a red gold brooch wrought in the shape of a scorpion from the Dornishman, Prince Oberyn; silver spurs from Ser Addam Marbrand; a red silk tourney pavilion from Lord Mathis Rowan.

Someday I’ll examine all the wedding presents Joffrey receives in detail, to see what little messages the author might have been sending, but this one stood out to me in a new way today (unlike, say, the more pointed symbolism of Oberyn’s and Mace’s gifts). For one, of course, it’s yet another sign of Joffrey’s Lannister heritage being promoted to the exclusion of his “Baratheon” heritage. A gold tourney pavilion might have been an appropriate Baratheon reference (especially since Robert’s pavilion at the Tourney of the Hand “was all of golden silk”), or even straddled the line between Baratheon and Lannister (since the two share gold as a sigil color), but a red silk pavilion was an exclusively Lannister symbol. It’s yet another sign of Joffrey being cultivated as a Lannister prince, with no hints of his supposed Baratheon ancestry (even though that didn’t entirely pan out).

But what’s maybe even more interesting, and related to this point about the Lannister-ness of the gift, is Mathis Rowan’s own position. I don’t think it’s coincidental that it’s in the same book that Tyrion notes Mathis Rowan’s apparent disgust at the way Tywin neatly outsources blame for the murders of Elia and her children. I wonder if this gift was a pointed reference, then, to the Lannister-orchestrated murders of Rhaegar’s wife and children during the Sack, particularly to the handling of Aegon’s and Rhaenys’ bodies. After all, when Tywin presented the mutilated corpses to Robert, he had them wrapped in crimson Lannister cloaks, since, as Ned, remembers, “the blood did not show so badly against the red cloth”. Robert had, in the words of Arianne, “climbed onto his throne over the corpses of children”, and to a staunch Targaryen supporter, Joffrey would likewise owe his throne to the murders of Aegon and Rhaenys. Mathis Rowan might not have the ability, or willingness, to defy his Tyrell overlords and surrender his estate to support the Targaryen cause abroad, but he might have felt that he could make a subtle statement with his wedding gift to Joffrey. This is what would symbolize Joffrey’s reign - the biggest piece of red cloth one Westerosi could give to another, a mute testament to the broken bodies of the children Lord Tywin had ordered slain to secure the throne for Robert and his heirs. 

The pavilion could just be a pavilion, of course, and I might be overthinking it. But it’s a neat interpretation regardless. 

It also means losing Sansa as a hostage since you can hardly keep your greatest ally’s wife as a prisoner, now can you?

Given that the Lannisters and the Tyrells were allies, why would the Lannisters object to Sansa marrying into House Tyrell? Could this be seen as an early sign that the supposed grand alliance was very much a marriage of convenience that both parties hoped to rid themselves of as soon as possible?

It was always a marriage of convenience. Tywin’s entire strategy hinges on giving them just as much as is needed to keep them on-side and hungry for more, without giving them too much and make them independent of the Lannisters.

The North is not only a huge asset in and of itself, but a marriage alliance between House Tyrell and House Stark possibly reorients the political cast of the war:

Bloody fool, thought Tyrion. “Sweet sister,” he explained patiently, “offend Tyrell and you offend Redwyne, Tarly, Rowan, and Hightower as well, and perhaps start them wondering whether Robb Stark might not be more accommodating of their desires.”

“I will not have the rose and the direwolf in bed together,” declared Lord Tywin. (ASOS Tyrion III)

She’s already got her legendary title The Maid of Tarth. She (allegedly)killed the False King Renly and carries a Valyrian Steel sword. She’s absolutely the stuff of legends.

While I doubt this will happen, I do hope that Brienne of Tarth eventually becomes a folklore legend in her own right among the smallfolk when the magical apocalypse goes down, like Clarence Crabb in Crackclaw Point.

I think this is very possible and that GRRM might’ve been hinting at it by surrounding Brienne with stories, myths, hedge knights exaggerating about their exploits, Sandor healing while the legend of the Hound spreads without him, etc.